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Deanna Daughtry

@deanna.daughtry

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A human having an experience on planet earth w/ my husband @chrisdaughtry & our children. Big fan of human rights. Owner of @femmeandfawn

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Last night I was reading in bed when suddenly the words stopped making sense. I recognized them and knew I knew them, but my brain couldn’t give them meaning. When I tried to read them out loud, I couldn’t form the words either.

It passed quickly, and because I otherwise felt fine except for a mild headache, I almost brushed it off. But since that can be a sign of a TIA or stroke, I went to the ER today.

They did bloodwork, a neuro exam, CT/CTA, and MRI. The good news: no bleeding, major blockage or anything there.

They think it may have been migraine-related, which surprised me because the headache was so mild. I’ll be following up with neurology.

They report found possible fibromuscular dysplasia in both internal carotid arteries and a 12 mm thyroid nodule.

So if something suddenly feels neurologically off..speech, vision, understanding, please don’t ignore it. Thankfully I’m good. Look at me putting myself out there two days in a row 😂 We’ll see how long this lasts. 😉 by @deanna.daughtry

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a month ago

Hi, I’m Deanna. This is probably more than “a little” about me, but here goes.

I’m uncomfortable posting pictures of myself and allowing myself to be perceived. Somewhere along the way, I decided I needed to look perfect before I could be visible and since I’m not, visibility has felt hard.

But I’m 53, and I’m working on it.

I own Femme & Fawn, an independent boutique for women and children. It’s deeply personal to me: 1% of every sale goes to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

I lost my daughter to suicide when she was 25. Before that, I lost my former husband to suicide and a former partner from an OD after a traumatic experience, though we’ll never know whether it was intentional. I also lost a high school “partner” to suicide. None of these losses happened while I was with them, but grief doesn’t care about timelines. Each loss changed me.

I’m also a mother, wife, business owner, homemaker, and writer. I love nesting, decorating, and making a home feel comforting and beautiful. My kids get ridiculously excited when I make “Mommy Meals”although the older I get, the less often I feel like cooking. 😂

I’m still figuring out how to balance my family and friendships, homemaking, writing, and Femme & Fawn. Often, I feel like I’m failing at it.

I’m growing out some gray hair and, for now, I’m not fighting it. You don’t need to tell me whether it ages me, because I am aging. Aging is a privilege, and I’ll do it however I want to. I may change my mind tomorrow, which is another privilege.

I’ve never found it easy to maintain a steady weight. I naturally live more in my mind than my body. I can spend hours researching, learning, thinking, processing, and connecting but I know caring for my physical self would be good for both. I’m working on that too.

We sold our beautiful two-acre home in Nashville for a smaller rental in Southern California, partly because barometric-pressure changes trigger my migraines. There were other reasons too. We decided to stop worrying about California falling into the ocean and enjoy the time we have left on this planet. No regrets. 🤣

So that’s a lot about me. Now by @deanna.daughtry

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a month ago

Today you would have been 30.

It’s hard to understand how five years can pass and still, in so many ways, you feel woven into every part of my life.

You were my firstborn. Before I knew anything about being a mother, I knew I wanted you. I loved you before I ever saw your face, and I will love you for as long as I exist.

Our story did not unfold the way I dreamed it would. We went through so much together. There were years when I wanted more than anything to take away your pain, to find the right answer, the right treatment, the right words, the right prayer, anything that could give you peace. I would have carried every bit of it for you if I could have.

But underneath all of those difficult years was always you.

Your beautiful heart.
Your laugh.
Your smile.
Your hugs.
The way you loved.
The parts of you that were funny and complicated and tender and uniquely Hannah.

You taught me more about life than I ever could have imagined.

You taught me that loving someone does not always mean being able to save them. You taught me how important it is to face our pain instead of running from it, to have compassion for the parts of ourselves we struggle to accept, and to keep choosing honesty, healing, and love even when life is unbearably hard.

Most of all, you taught me how precious our time with one another really is.

So today, as much as I ache for all the birthdays and ordinary days we should still be having together, I am also deeply grateful.

Grateful that I got to be your mom.
Grateful that I got to know your beautiful soul.
Grateful for every laugh, every hug, every memory, every lesson, and every year I was given with you. by @deanna.daughtry

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a month ago

There are real people behind small businesses, noticing the names that keep showing up, cheering us on, telling a friend, sharing a post, or simply taking a moment to engage.

I notice you. And I’m incredibly grateful for every bit of support you give Femme & Fawn, whether you’ve placed an order or have simply helped us be seen.

Thank you for being here and thank you for helping us give back to @afspnational it truly means so much. 🦌🤍 by @deanna.daughtry

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a month ago

Today I took the time to pause & thing of random things that bring me joy: kayaking. Having coffee somewhere beautiful. Coffee itself. ☕️ Flowers. Moss growing in the wild..I like to pet it. 🤣 Old trees.

Not being in a hurry.

When my house is clean and the pillows are fluffed. When my kids & grandkids smile and are genuinely happy to see me. That one is especially good. ❤️

Fall weather. The smell of burning leaves and a campfire. Those little moments when everything just feels good for no particular reason.

We spend so much time thinking about what needs to be done, fixed, achieved or figured out that we forget to notice what already makes us happy.

Take a minute today and think about the random little things that light you up inside. And remember to enjoy it while it lasts.

Tell me one of yours. I’d really love to know. by @deanna.daughtry

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2 months ago

I’m having a strange experience with this loss.

I’ve lost enough people I deeply loved that, somewhere along the way, I had to develop a different relationship with grief.

Parent. Partners. A child.

You eventually understand, in a way you never wanted to, that loving people means losing people. And somehow you adapt because you have to keep living.

So usually, when someone I didn’t personally know dies, I feel sad for the people who loved them. I think about the hearts that are breaking. I feel compassion for the loss, but I can hold it at a distance.

This one feels different.

I didn’t know Dolly Parton.

And yet somehow it feels like we did.

Maybe because she felt like some combination of the neighbor, mother, grandmother, sister, friend or stranger we all hope to encounter in this life.

Someone completely, unapologetically herself who somehow made more room for everyone else to be themselves too.

Funny. Warm. Kind. Accepting. A little irreverent. Glamorous and ridiculous and wise and tender and tough all at once.

The world feels incredibly heavy right now. There is so much cruelty, division and noise.

And Dolly seemed to have this rare ability to move through the world without becoming hardened by it.

She reminded us that kindness doesn’t have to be naïve.
That femininity doesn’t have to mean weakness.
That you can laugh at yourself without diminishing yourself.
And that you can stand firmly in who you are while still making other people feel welcome.

Maybe that’s why this one hurts.

Maybe I’m grieving the loss of one more person who made the world feel a little softer.

What a beautiful thing to have done with a life, to make people feel they are enough as they are. by @deanna.daughtry

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2 months ago

Just came across this photo while looking for something else on my phone. @chrisdaughtry, we were both so different back then.

It’s bittersweet to look at. We’ve grown a lot, learned a lot, lost a lot. There is good and bad that comes with every turn of the page.

Hannah was still alive. I miss her.

Back then, we could still hug these two kids every day. Now one is gone, and the other is an adult living in another state with our youngest granddaughter. I live for the FaceTime calls, but I’m always wishing they were closer.

Why do we so often long for more and forget to fully enjoy what we have while we have it?

I think that may be part of the human condition, and something worth fighting against.

It’s good to have dreams. It’s good to strive, to create, to express ourselves, to build a life and make a living. But somewhere along the way, figuring out how to balance all of it has become incredibly hard.

Sometimes it feels like the bar just keeps moving higher. More paperwork. More portals. More appointments. More expectations. More striving. More surviving. We get so worn down trying to keep up that we barely have the energy left to question whether the way we’re living is actually the way we want to live.

Technology was supposed to give us more time. Make life easier. Give us more freedom to do the things we love with the people we love. And somehow, for so many of us, it doesn’t feel like that happened.

Of course, it’s still up to us to protect what matters. To put the phone down. To make the call. To sit a little longer. To hug people while we still can. To notice the life that is happening while we’re busy trying to build a better one.

And maybe we won’t ever get the balance exactly right.

Maybe the best we can do is keep remembering.

Anyway… apparently one old photo brought up a whole lot of thoughts and feelings today. 😂

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Back to work. And hopefully, back to remembering to be here while I’m here. by @deanna.daughtry

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2 months ago

I think, in some ways, Femme & Fawn began with her.

The little girl in this photograph.

She loved beautiful things. Tiny treasures, stories, pretty dresses, animals, and nature. She was sensitive, imaginative, curious, and always had a doll close by.

I’m Deanna, the owner and operator of Femme & Fawn, and I wanted to introduce myself, not only as the person behind the shop, but as the woman behind the reason it exists.

Femme & Fawn has grown from so many parts of my life: motherhood, creativity, loss, resilience, my love of beautiful objects, and my belief that creativity is healing and there are many ways to expand use our innate creativity with the world. Through how we love, give, live, dress, decorate, cook, sing, dance. All of it!!!

This shop is deeply personal to me.

I choose the clothing, jewelry, objects, fragrances, pieces for home, and little discoveries you find here with the hope that they feel special when they arrive in your life, not simply like something you bought, but something you’ll remember.

I’m drawn to things with soul. Things that feel romantic, nostalgic, a little wild, beautifully made, and meant to be lived with.

And while Femme & Fawn is undoubtedly shaped by my own story, I hope it becomes part of yours too.

A place for women and children, mothers and daughters, friends, dreamers, caretakers, free spirits, tender hearts and anyone who still believes there is something important about finding beauty in everyday life.

There is much more of our story I want to share with you.

But I thought I should begin at the beginning.

With her. by @deanna.daughtry

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2 months ago

Life lately ☕️🫖🧁💿👗🐶🐕🪲🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 by @deanna.daughtry

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2 months ago

Some things are worth protecting:
your softness, your whimsy, your laughter, your wonder.Getting excited over little glimmers. Dancing silly in the kitchen.May we never let anyone,or anything, take that from us. And if you notice you’ve lost a little bit of her along the way, fight with everything you have to get her back. Xoxo, Deanna by @deanna.daughtry

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2 months ago

Noah and I both have this “ freckle” on our right palm ✋ in the exact same location! 🧬 are wild! by @deanna.daughtry

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2 months ago

A lot of you have asked over the past year when Femme & Fawn was coming back.

The honest answer?

I wasn’t sure.

When we moved across the country, I thought I’d have everything figured out much faster than I did. Instead, life had other plans.

We bounced between rentals, downsized, got the kids settled into new schools, moved my mom across the country, set up two households, and tried to create a new normal.

Meanwhile, all of this sat in storage waiting for me to figure out how to make it work again.

I’m not 25 anymore. 😂

At 53, with three kids still at home, a husband who travels, and approximately 7,000 responsibilities on any given day, rebuilding a business from scratch has felt very different than it did the first time around for so many reasons!

But little by little, I kept going.

And somehow all these bins and things are starting to become my amazing “Order Fulfillment Fairyland.”

The dresses are being steamed. The candles are labeled. The shelves are stocked. The checklists are everywhere.

And after a year away, Femme & Fawn is finally reopening online this Saturday.

I’m excited.

I’m nervous.

And I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has continued to ask, encourage, and cheer me on along the way.

We’re almost there. by @deanna.daughtry

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4 months ago